European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 25, Supplement 2, 2015, 46–50 ß The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckv034 ......................................................................................................... Trends in adolescents’ perceived parental communication across 32 countries in Europe and North America from 2002 to 2010 Fiona Brooks1, Apolinaras Zaborskis2, Izabela Tabak3, Marı´a del Carmen Granado Alco´n4, Nida Zemaitiene5, Simone de Roos6, Elene Klemera7 1 2 3 4 5 6 Adolescent and Child Health Research Group, CRIPACC, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK Institute for Health Research, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain Department of Health Psychology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), Research Sector Care, Emancipation, and Time Use, The Hague, The Netherlands 7 Adolescent and Child Health Research Group, CRIPACC, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK Correspondence: Fiona Brooks, College Lane Campus, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, Tel: +44 1707285990, Fax: +44 1707 285994, e-mail: [email protected] Background: The quality of communication with parents is a determinant of health and well-being during adolescence, being predictive of self-esteem, self-rated health and the ability to navigate health risk behaviours. Methods: This article describes trends in adolescent’s (aged 11, 13 and 15 years) perception of communication with mothers and fathers by gender across 32 European and North American countries from 2002 to 2010. Analyses were performed on 425 699 records employing a General Linear Model (MANOVA). Results: In most countries, significant increases in the prevalence of ease of communication with both mothers and fathers were observed, with the greatest positive changes over time in Estonia, Denmark and Wales. In some countries, the opposite trend was found with the greatest negative changes occurring in France, Slovenia and Poland. Across the pooled dataset, a significant positive trend was observed for ease of communication with father, for both boys and girls and for ease of communication with mother for boys only. Conclusion: The temporal trends demonstrated an increase in a positive health asset for many young people, that of family communication. Positive trends may be a feature of the economic boom over the past decade coupled with cultural changes in attitudes to parenting, especially fathering. ......................................................................................................... Introduction dolescence is often conceptualized as a developmental phase, Awhereby the young person transitions from the guardianship of parents towards independent adulthood. The quality of communication with parents during adolescence remains a strong determinant of health and well-being, being predictive of adolescents’ self-esteem, well-being, self-rated health and ability to navigate health risk behaviours. Evidence from predominantly crosssectional studies indicates that adolescents who report easy communication with their mothers are more likely to report excellent or high-rated health, and are less likely to be current smokers or frequent alcohol drinkers.1,2 Moreover, finding it easy to talk with their mother or father about things that bother them, acts as a protective factor for adolescents’ mental well-being and a strong predictor of resilience.3,4 European studies suggest that the quality of parent–adolescent relationships is determined by different factors: individual (such as age and gender) and external (cultural and socio-economic),5,6 including at the national level differing social and family welfare policies.6 Consideration of international trends in adolescents’ communication with their parents offers an opportunity to begin to explore the relationship between changes in family lifestyle and socioeconomic contexts and other trends in adolescent health and well-being. An advantage of using the Health Behaviour in Schoolaged Children (HBSC) analyses is that the same instrument is used for measuring the quality of parent communication in all countries over three survey rounds. The aim of the article is to describe trends in adolescent’s perception of communication with mothers and fathers by gender among young people in early-to-mid adolescence across 32 European and North American countries for the first decade of the 21st century. Methods Data were drawn from the cross-national HBSC study, collected during the 2001–02, 2005–06 and 2009–10 school-years. A total of 425 699 young people, aged 11, 13 and 15 years, from 32 countries/ regions reported on their perceptions of the quality of communication with both father and mother. The survey question explored young people’s perceptions of how easy it was to talk to their mother or father about the issues that were of importance to them. Individual outcomes, reported quality of communication with father and mother were dichotomized into two categories: easy and difficult. The analyses were performed separately for boys and girls for the pooled dataset and separately for 32 countries, employing General Linear Model (a procedure MANOVA) from SPSS (version 21, 2012, IBM Corp., NY). Paired Bonferroni test was used to describe changes in quality of communication of Adolescents’ with their parents from 2002 to 2010, controlling for age and family affluence. The pooled analyses used country weighting to control for the different size samples. Results Significant positive trends in prevalence of ease of communication with both parents were found in the vast majority of countries (figure 1), these consistent positive trends were identified across all ages (not reported in this article). However, significant differences Trends in adolescents’ perceived parental communication 47 Figure 1 Change in the ease of communication between 2001–02 and 2009–10, by country (continued) 48 European Journal of Public Health Girls Figure 1 Continued Boys Trends in adolescents’ perceived parental communication 49 Table 1 Proportions and changes over time (% and CI) in quality of communication with parents for boys and girlsa 2001–02 2005–06 (95% CI) Boys Easy to talk to father Easy to talk to mother Easy to talk to both parents Difficult to talk to mother only Difficult to talk to father only Difficult to talk to both parents Girls Easy to talk to father Easy to talk to mother Easy to talk to both parents Difficult to talk to mother only Difficult to talk to father only Difficult to talk to both parents Absolute change over study periodb 2009–10 (95% CI) (95% CI) (95% CI) P value 72.10 82.77 66.56 5.54 16.21 11.69 (71.76 (82.49 (66.20 (5.37 (15.94 (11.44 to to to to to to 72.44) 83.06) 66.91) 5.72) 16.49) 11.93) 73.82 83.62 68.44 5.38 15.18 11.00 (73.48 (83.34 (68.08 (5.21 (14.91 (10.75 to to to to to to 74.16) 83.91) 68.79) 5.55) 15.46) 11.24) 74.71 83.73 69.40 5.31 14.33 10.96 (74.36 (83.43 (69.03 (5.12 (14.04 (10.71 to to to to to to 75.06) 84.03) 69.77) 5.49) 14.62) 11.22) 2.61 0.96 2.84 0.23 1.88 0.73 (2.03 (0.47 (2.23 ( 0.54 ( 2.36 ( 1.14 to to to to to to 3.19) P < 0.001 1.45) P < 0.001 3.46) P < 0.001 0.06) P = 0.176 1.41) P < 0.001 0.31) P < 0.001 55.44 83.07 52.08 3.36 30.99 13.58 (55.07 (82.79 (51.71 (3.22 (30.65 (13.32 to to to to to to 55.80) 83.34) 52.45) 3.49) 31.33) 13.83) 56.93 83.02 53.42 3.51 29.60 13.46 (56.57 (82.74 (53.05 (3.37 (29.26 (13.21 to to to to to to 57.30) 83.30) 53.79) 3.65) 29.94) 13.72) 57.58 83.04 54.03 3.55 29.01 13.41 (57.20 (82.75 (53.65 (3.41 (28.65 (13.14 to to to to to to 57.96) 83.33) 54.41) 3.70) 29.36) 13.68) 2.15 0.03 1.95 0.19 1.98 0.17 (1.51 ( 0.52 (1.31 ( 0.04 ( 2.57 ( 0.61 to to to to to to 2.78) P < 0.001 0.46) P = 0.998 2.59) P < 0.001 0.44) P = 0.149 1.39) P < 0.001 0.28) P = 0.998 a Estimated marginal means using MANOVA procedure (adjusted by age and family affluence), pooled data of 32 countries, data weighted by countries. b Based on estimated marginal means using Bonferroni test. in adolescent–parent communication trends were found both between countries and genders. In most countries, significant increases in the prevalence of ease of communication with both mothers and fathers were observed, with the greatest positive changes over time in Estonia, Denmark and Wales. However in a minority of countries, the opposite trend was found with the greatest negative changes occurring in France, Slovenia and Poland. Across the pooled dataset, a significant positive trend was observed for ease of communication with father, for both boys and girls and for ease of communication with mother for boys only. Communication difficulties between boys and their mothers reduced across surveys, but communication difficulties between girls and their mothers remained almost unchanged (table 1). In all surveys, the proportion of young people reporting ease of communication with their mother was higher than the proportion reporting ease of communication with their fathers and proportions reporting ease of communication with fathers was higher for boys than for girls. Discussion This study of young people in early-to-mid adolescence identified that across the majority of European countries and North America, there is a significant positive trend in terms of an increase in prevalence of ease of communication with parents over the past decade. Positive family communication has been identified as an important protective health asset for young people, related to an increase of thriving behaviours and to a decrease in participation in health risk behaviours.7 Consequently, the trends reported here may indicate an important contributory factor to positive improvements in the health and well-being of young people. Generally, the identified increase in prevalence of ease of communication can be attributed to young people reporting a distinctive positive shift in the character of fathers’ interaction with their adolescent offspring. This is a significant change as ease of communication with fathers has been suggested to have a particularly protective role on the health and well-being of young people in unique ways from mothers, and is associated with positive emotional well-being, less aggressive behaviour in boys and good body image among girls.8–10 Accounting for why such changes in reported experiences of communication with fathers has occurred is likely to be a reflection of complex interactions between shifts in domestic gender roles changes in the construction of masculine identities and social policies, including increased recognition of the importance of fathers’ role in child development.11 There is some evidence to support a shift in patterns of parent and child interaction away from gendered, stereotypical parental roles such as authoritarian decision-making roles for fathers and caregiving roles for mothers, towards shared care giving. Moreover, this shift in parenting values appears to foster democratic approaches to communication that develop autonomy and develop mutual respect between the child and parent rather than value obedience.12 There are notable differences remaining between countries in terms of the proportion of young people within countries reporting easy communication with their parents. The biggest positive changes were identified in Estonia, Denmark and Wales. The biggest decrease in perceived quality of communication, (with both parents) was reported by young people in Slovenia, France and Poland. The reconciliation of work and family life has been recognized as a key ‘happiness’ factor in determining what families have to say about their quality of their lives.13,14 Those countries where individuals are purported to feel they have a good balance between work and family life13,14 are also those countries identified in this study as having a more positive perception of parental communication (e.g. Denmark 24%; Estonia 31%). Moreover, those young people perceiving the lowest levels of ease of communication with their parents coincide with countries that have been identified as having a poorer self-reported perception of family life-work balance, for example, France 19% (workers personally satisfied with work life balance) and Slovenia 18%.13,14 In Poland, however citizens do tend to report a more positive perception of ‘life–work balance’ (27%). However one dimension of work–life balance that may relate to family interaction, strainbased conflict (proportion of workers having difficulties in fulfilling family responsibilities due to the intensity and time allocated to paid work) is in Poland well above the EU average (62 vs. 50%). A situation that has intensified over the past decade with large scale parental economic migration, resulting in the temporary separation of Polish families.15 Overall, understanding the dimensions of work life balance that might be reflected in trends in family communication may aid in conceptualizing the impact work–life balance has on family life. Further work is needed to account for the decline in ease of communication in France over the past decade, especially against trends towards increased ease in communication. There is some evidence to suggest that young people in France experience lower levels of 50 European Journal of Public Health Suggesting possible changes in the role of fathers in childrearing and potentially an increased understanding of the contribution of fathers to child development. The promotion of thriving behaviours is a key issue for public health policy across Europe. This article highlights the importance of considering the quality of family communication as a health asset that can contribute to thriving among young people. parental supervision and have weaker emotional bonds with their parents than is the norm for young people in other European and North American countries.16 However, comparative analysis is required to identify how young people interpret their parenting experiences and if they have an awareness of cultural differences in family life. Additional consideration is also needed to explain the gendered character of the trends described in this article, it is currently unclear why in contrast to the findings for fathers, positive increases in communication prevalence with mothers were found only for boys. Conclusion References The temporal trends reported on in this article demonstrated an increase in a positive health asset for many young people, that of family communication. This was especially notable in relation to the quality of communication between adolescents’ and their fathers suggesting that a qualitative change in the nature of fathering and interaction with their children during adolescence has occurred over the last decade. Further work is needed to examine if economic conditions are a barometer for the quality of family communication and how they interact with socioeconomic and cultural changes, such as parental migration or changes in cultural attitudes concerning effective parenting. 1 Zambon A, Lemma P, Borraccino A, et al. Socio-economic position and Adolescents’ health in Italy: the role of the quality of social relations. Eur J Public Health 2006;16:627–32. 2 Resnick M, Bearman P, Blum R, et al. Protecting adolescents’ from harm: findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. J Am Med Assoc 1997;278:823–32. 3 Levin KA, Currie C. Family structure, mother-child communication, father-child communication, and adolescent life satisfaction. A cross-sectional multilevel analysis. Health Educ 2010;110:152–68. 4 Kernis MH, Brown AC, Brody GH. Fragile self-esteem in children and its association with perceived patterns of parent-child communication. J Pers 2000;68:225–52. 5 Tabak I, Mazur J, Granado MC, et al. Examining trends in parent-child communication in Europe over 12 years. J Early Adolesc 2012;32:26–54. Acknowledgements 6 Kuntsche S, Knibbe RA, Kuntsche E, Gmel G. Housewife or working mum–each to her own? The relevance of societal factors in the association between social roles and alcohol use among mothers in 16 industrialized countries. Addiction 2011;106:1925–32. 7 Mannes ME, Roehlkepartain EC, Benson P. Unleashing the power of community to strengthen the well-being of children, youth, and families: an asset-building approach. Child Welfare 2005;84:223–50. 8 Lambert S, Cashwell C. Preteens talking to parents: perceived communication and school-based aggression. Fam J 2004;12:122–28. 9 Sheeber LB, Davis B, Leve C, et al. Adolescents’ relationships with their mothers and fathers: associations with depressive disorder and subdiagnostic symptomatology. J Abnormal Psychol 2007;116:144–54. HBSC is an international study carried out in collaboration with WHO/EURO. The international coordinator was Professor Candace Currie, University of St. Andrews, and the databank manager was Professor Oddrun Samdal, University of Bergen. A complete list of participating countries and researchers is available on the HBSC website (http://www.hbsc.org). We acknowledge and thank the following funders: The Department of Health, England, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), The Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality, Spain, The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. HBSC teams owe a great debt of thanks to the schools and young people who take part in the survey. Funding The data collection for each HBSC survey is funded at the national level. Conflicts of interest: None declared. 10 Fenton C, Brooks F, Spencer N, Morgan A. Sustaining a positive body image in adolescence: an assets-based analysis. Health Soc Care Commun 2010;18:189–98. 11 Marsiglio W, Amato P, Day RD, Lamb ME. Scholarship on fatherhood in the 1990s and beyond. J Marriage Fam 2000;62:1173–91. 12 Trifan TA, Stattin H, Tilton-Weaver L. Have authoritarian parenting practices and roles changed in the last 50 years? J Marriage Fam 2014;76:744–61. 13 Kotowska IE, Matysiak A, Styrc M, et al. Family life and workSecond European Quality of Life Survey: 2010, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2010 Luxembourg. Key points 14 OECD. Work and Life Balance, in How’s Life?: Measuring Well-Being. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2011. Over the past decade, across the majority of European countries and North America, there is a significant positive trend in terms of an increase in prevalence of ease of communication with parents. A distinctive positive shift in the character of fathers’ interaction with their adolescent offspring was identified. 15 Okolski M, Topinska I. Social impact of emigration and rural-urban migration in central and eastern Europe; Final country report. Poland: European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, 2012. 16 Claes M, Lacourse E, Bouchard C, Perruchini P. Parental practices in late adolescence, a comparison of three countries: Canada, France and Italy. J Adolesc 2006;26;4:387–99.
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